Happily Forgotten
by NightIntent
Summary: Oneshot. Yet another story in my Happily series. Kara has fallen off her horse, and can't remember anything about her past. What will Finn and his advisors do now?


NightIntent: Have I mentioned before that this was never supposed to be a series? Probably. This likely won't be the last one.

Disclaimer: I don't own any references to fairy tales.

* * *

"Oh, Fi-inn!" Kara called sweetly. "Where did my new dress go?"

Finn walked into the room. "Um. Let's see. My sister asked to borrow something of yours, so I let her into your room," Finn said. "I suppose she must've taken it. I didn't see what she took, though. I was too absorbed in the latest history I was reading. It's fascinating, really. I'm reading about this girl who was put to sleep by a curse and then put into a castle, guarded by a bunch of fake traps, and then a handsome prince came and kissed her and she woke up. Very interesting, really."

"That's very nice," Kara growled through gritted teeth. "Such a pity that's a fairy tale, not a history."

"But this book was shelved under histories!" Finn protested.

"Then it lied. Or maybe it was mis-shelved. Either way, that's not history. It never could've happened."

"I woke you up, and everyone thought you were dead," Finn retorted.

"Lucky shot. Once-in-a-lifetime thing. It was a _spell_," Kara said. "Get over it."

"Why did you marry me, if you don't like me?" Finn inquired.

"I like you plenty. But that doesn't mean you don't annoy me," Kara said. "Now, I have to go find your sister. I want my dress back, I was planning to wear it today, but now I can't, since she seems to have borrowed it." She sighed. "See you later, then." Without another word, she walked out of the room, leaving Finn staring after her.

Kara walked swiftly down the hallway, thinking. _He's been acting so weird lately,_ she thought. _Ever since I was sick._ She was wearing a sleeveless dress, and rubbed idly at the exposed scars on her arm. Finn had told her that she'd done it to herself, while she'd been delirious. However, Kara had seen him looking at them with an immensely pleased look on his face. It was extremely odd, even for Finn. It made her wonder how she'd _really_ gotten the scars.

_Wait a second,_ Kara thought. _Why am I still here? I wanted to go riding._ Kara turned on her heel and strode briskly toward the stable. She got Night out of the stall and groomed and tacked the mare up quickly. Kara set Night at a walk, going toward the waterfall.

After a while, Kara pushed Night up to a canter. When they were almost at the waterfall, the easy-going mare suddenly spooked, stopping suddenly. Kara, who was deep in thought, wasn't paying attention. She went flying out of the saddle, landing heavily. For a while, she floated in blackness.

* * *

"Unh," Kara groaned, sitting up and rubbing her head. She looked around. "Where am I?" There was a man sitting next to her, watching her.

"You're at the royal palace," he said. "Don't you remember? You're my wife."

Kara frowned. "Wife? Who are you?" she asked him. "Why does my head hurt so much?"

"You fell off your horse while riding," the man said, ignoring the first two questions. "Really, Kara, you need to be more careful."

"Who's Kara?"

"Why… you, of course!" the man said. "Are you telling me you don't remember anything?" He looked at her incredulously. "Excuse me, I have to go talk to my father." The man got up and left the room, locking the door behind him.

Still rubbing her head, Kara wondered aloud, "I fell off a horse? Why don't I remember that? Or anything else. How… unpleasant." It was an understatement, but she wasn't much in the mood to care.

A few minutes later, a different man walked into the room. "Hello. I'm the royal physician," he said. "Would you mind if I gave you a check-up?"

"Um, no, I suppose not," Kara said hesitantly. The man approached her slowly, as if she might run away at any time. He felt her head gently, and stared into her eyes.

"Hmph. Nothing wrong with you, as far as I can tell," he muttered. "Then why have you lost your memory?"

"You're asking me?" Kara asked, raising her eyebrows. "You have to be kidding."

"I wasn't talking to you," he snapped irritably.

"You said 'you,' " Kara told him. "And don't get all snippy with a sick girl. It's not nice." She gripped her head, groaning dramatically. "Oww, my head. Why does it hurt?"

The physician looked at her, his lips tight. "I don't know," he said shortly. "I'll be back."

"Yeah, right," Kara muttered as he closed the door. A pleased smile spread across her face. She settled back down in the bed and looked around. Nothing looked familiar. It was _extremely_ disconcerting. "So. I'm Kara, and I'm a princess, huh? Weird. I wonder why?"

"Why what?" Fin said, walking into the room.

"Why am I a princess?" Kara asked.

"Because…."

Before Finn could answer, the door opened and one of his advisors walked in. "If I could interrupt, my prince, I'd like to answer her questions," the counselor said smoothly.

"All right, go ahead," Finn said. He kissed Kara's forehead. "I'll be back later." The door opened and shut behind him.

"Now, where were we?" the advisor asked idly. "Oh, yes. Why you're a princess. You see, you were born to nobility. A royal family to be exact."

"Which royal family?" Kara inquired.

"The… Calanras," the advisor said. "Yes, the Calanras who ruled Litha, a country far from here."

"Can I see a map of this country?"

"Yes, of course, I'll have a royal librarian dig one out," the advisor said briskly. "Now, you were born to this family, and since you weren't the firstborn, you couldn't rule. So your parents decided that they would marry you to a man suitable to your station, preferably a prince from another country, and be rid of you that way. One less person to try to usurp the throne, yes? Following so far?"

Kara frowned. "Yes…."

"Good," the advisor said. "Anything else you want to know?"

"If I wasn't firstborn, why was I going to usurp the throne?"

"You weren't. How could a sweet, pretty, innocent little thing like you try to usurp the throne?" the advisor asked no one. "Such a nasty business, trying to usurp the throne."

"You sound like you know from experience," Kara remarked.

"Oh, no, of course not," he assured her hastily. "I only know from what I've read. Why would I try to usurp the throne? The king is doing a marvelous job." He looked a bit nervous.

"Oh. Okay," Kara said, accepting it easily. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Nothing that I can think of," the advisor said. "But call for me if you want to know anything."

"I will," Kara said. The man walked out of the room, and Finn came back in moments later. "I don't like that man," she confessed to him.

"Really? He's my most trusted advisor," Finn told her.

"Maybe he shouldn't be."

"I'll take that into consideration," Finn said non-comitally.

"Good," Kara said. "I think I'll go back to sleep now."

"That would be a good idea," Finn said. "See you later." He walked silently from the room. Kara was asleep before the door even closed.

* * *

Kara woke with a start. Her head was pounding, and, for a minute, she didn't remember where she was. She half-expected to be surrounded by other beds. When she thought about it, she didn't know why. She was a princess, wasn't she? Why would she share a room with anyone? Sighing, she stood up and dressed herself automatically.

It didn't occur to her until she was in the hall why she'd dressed herself. Form all she knew of princesses—which, admittedly wasn't much at the time—they didn't dress themselves. That was what maids were supposed to do, weren't they? Frowning, Kara made her way to the stable.

"Saddle up my mount," she ordered a stablehand. When he looked at her incredulously, she snapped, "Have I grown a second head of something? Get to it!" He hurried off to get her mare ready.

When he came back, Kara asked for directions to a nice place to sit and think.

"My lady was always partial to the waterfall," he said politely. He proceeded to tell her exactly how to get to it.

"Thank you," Kara said graciously. Still frowning slightly, she led her mare from the stable and mounted her, riding where the stablehand had directed her. It didn't take long for her to reach it.

Night whinnied softly as the waterfall came into view. There was another horse in the meadow next to it. A familiar one, too, judging from Night's reaction. Startled, Kara took a minute to realize there were _two_ horses in the meadow. An unsaddled gray stallion grazed near the blood bay that Kara had seen originally.

"Hello!" Finn called. "What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be resting still."

"I took the opportunity to escape, since no one was in the room when I woke up," Kara replied crisply.

Finn chuckled. "That's just like you," he said. "Want to sit with me?"

"Very well," Kara said coolly, though her heart started beating. _As if I were some silly love-struck teenager!_ she scolded herself. _Come now, we're already married._ She took Night's bridle off and hung it on a tree, then went and sat gingerly next to Finn. "What are those horses names?" she asked idly, watching Night go up to the gray stallion.

"The stallion next to Night is Mist," Finn responded, tearing up a plucked blade of grass. "He's yours, actually. I only brought him out here because he needed the exercise and fresh air."

"Really? He's beautiful," Kara commented.

"Yes, he is," Finn said. "Much too good for the man I got him from."

"Oh? How sad for the horse. A bad owner is never good for a remarkable animal like that. What's the other one's name?"

"The blood bay is mine," Finn said, as if she hadn't guessed that for herself. "He's named Bloody Flame, but I call him Dragon. He's sure got the personality of a dragon."

"You've met a dragon? Really and truly?" Kara's face lit up.

"Well, no" Finn admitted reluctantly. "But he sounds like one, from the books I've read on them."

"Oh." Kara turned to stare at the falling water, rushing down at a rate that would surely kill a human. She sighed deeply, absorbing the calm of the meadow. "This is such a nice place."

"Yes, it is. You know, this is where we made up when we had our first argument," Finn informed her.

"Is that so? What did we argue about?" Kara asked.

"I don't even remember," Finn said, obviously lying.

"Oh." Kara didn't realize he was lying. She didn't know him well enough anymore. She rested her head on his shoulder. "Tell me, what was our wedding like? I can't remember a thing of it."

Finn stiffened imperceptibly. "Well, the whole court was there," he said. "Your family was invited, of course, but begged leave to not attend, claiming they had other things to deal with. I didn't believe that, but there was nothing I could do." All this was true. It just wasn't the family Kara thought it was, at the moment. "You know, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. That day, you looked positively radiant."

Kara blushed. "That's so nice of you to say," she murmured.

"It's true," Finn insisted. "You are. Those dwarves didn't describe you we—" He trailed off, realizing what he'd said.

"Dwarves?" Kara demanded. "What dwarves?"

"Did I say dwarves? I meant your father's ministers," Finn corrected hurriedly. "They were so short, I always called them dwarves in my head."

Kara stared at him for a few seconds, then turned away, accepting the explanation. She tucked the remark away in her mind, for later examination. "Shall we head back?" Kara suggested. "My head is starting to hurt again."

"As my lady wishes," Finn said gallantly. He grabbed his horse's bridle and Mist's lead rope. The gray stallion snapped at him, nearly scoring a hit. Finn pulled his hand back just in time.

"Maybe I should lead him," Kara said. "He is mine, after all." Without any remark, Finn handed her te rope. Mist went willingly to stand by Night's side. Kara stroked his muzzle fondly. "Gorgeous, aren't you?" She rode off down the trail. Finn followed, looking slightly sulky.

The two reached the stables in a fairly short amount of time. They handed the three horses off to the waiting stablehands and went inside to eat. Kara had forgotten, and Finn hadn't eaten for hours.

The two talked about little things, like the weather, for a few minutes. By the time they were partway through their meal, Kara had asked about what they'd done together since they'd married, and Finn was telling her stories that he "remembered." He left out quite a bit, but she was satisfied, mostly because she didn't know what he left out.

"I wish I could know more about my childhood," Kara sighed. "Are you sure I didn't tell you anything about it?"

"Very sure," Finn lied smoothly. "We haven't been married for all that long, remember. Only a few months."

"True," Kara admitted. "Very well. What now?"

"Would you like to look at the histories in the library?" Finn suggested.

"Are there any on Litha?"

"I don't think so."

"Oh. Well, let's go anyway. If I can't know my history, I can at least know the history of the country."

Finn led the way to the library. For the next few hours, the two of them read through random history books. Kara was thoroughly entertained by some of Finn's ancestors. They were quite silly people, sometimes. Finally, Kara and Finn went to eat dinner. Kara buzzed about the history of the country all through the meal, giggling about some of the sillier moments.

Kara went to sleep early. Her head had started pounding shortly after dinner. Because of this, she wasn't able to think about Finn's earlier comment about dwarves.

* * *

The next morning, Kara's head didn't hurt as much. Smiling, she got dressed quickly and efficiently, not worrying about anything. While she thought about what she'd do that day, the events from the day before played through her head. She remembered Finn's comment about the dwarves. Scowling, she tried to search her memory for everything she knew about dwarves. It wasn't much.

Finally, she remembered a cloth pressed to her face, and waking up in an unfamiliar place. Her scowl deepened. What did that have anything to do with _dwarves_? Even more confused than before, Kara made her way down to the dining room, to eat breakfast.

After eating, Kara went to the library. She had nothing better to do at the time, and she wanted to check something. "Excuse me," she said to the librarian on duty, smiling brilliantly, "but do you know where I can find reference material on dwarves?"

The librarian had looked thunderstruck when they first met, but when she mentioned what she was looking for, he just looked scornful. "Of course not. There's no such thing as dwarves. Stupid girl," he muttered. The man wandered off, leaving Kara glaring at his back.

"Jerk," she murmured, not exactly trying to be quiet. She walked further into the library, looking at titles of books. She found a more recent history of the country. This one looked well-used and had no dust on it at all, as if it had been used recently. She turned to the back.

The book was blank.

Frowning—she seemed to do that a lot recently—Kara turned it toward the front. It had been started when Prince Finn Aeron Scera of the country Fayta was born. Much of it was about the young prince's silly stunts and escapades when he was younger. Kara simply skimmed these parts, not really paying attention to them. Nearer to the end, there was a line that said, "The king is trying to find a suitable marriage for the prince, but no princesses or nobility in near-by countries are suitable." What "suitable" meant, Kara had no idea.

A couple pages later, her name was mentioned. "And so, Kara Beren, the girl who was woken from a spell, married Prince Aeron Scera. The nobility weren't happy with this at first, but once it was deemed that she was suitable—pretty, and from the nobility of the country—they allowed the marriage without a fight."

"What?" Kara muttered. "That's odd…."

Kara flipped back a couple pages in the book. "Following his father's and advisors' orders, the prince followed an ad in a newspaper, discovered by one of aforementioned advisors, and went to wake up a be-spelled girl, thereby rescuing her from the clutches of a group of men. He returned days later, carrying a beautiful girl on the back of his horse. Kara Beren is the daughter of _very_ minor nobility, ones that were originally passed over because it was thought that they had no daughter."

On the next page, a passage stated, "The princess Kara was kidnapped. The man sent a ransom note, demanding the release of his brother. A plan was formulated, and both men were killed. The princess was retrieved safely, and the kidnapper's horse was commandeered."

Kara shut the book with a snap, her eyes blazing with fury. "They _lied_ to me!" she fumed softly. "And he let them!" Everything she'd forgotten came flooding back to her. The fights, Finn's lovers, even the time when she'd been kidnapped, which he had forced her to forget. Almost growling, Kara tucked the book under her arm and left the library. She went straight to the stables, and ordered a stablehand to saddle Mist for her. As an afterthought, she asked that Night be attached to Mist's saddle.

While she waited, Kara ran up to her room to change and pack a few things. She grabbed a pack she kept in her room for just such occasions. Quickly, Kara snatched the first things that came to her hand, shoving them into the bag without worrying about the fabric being destroyed. She tossed it over her shoulder, ready to go.

Kara's mind was already racing ahead, to where she would stay for a while. Just until the hunt for the missing princess died down. Not her old home, for sure. The house of the seven brothers had been burned down, so that was out, too. Still trying to figure out someplace to go, Kara grabbed Mist's bridle and led him out of the stable. She got into the saddle, smiled at the man who had saddled him and brushed Night, and rode off at a walk. No need to alarm the help. One might sound the alarm.

At the waterfall, Kara stopped to rest for a bit, and think over what she was doing. _Wouldn't it be easier,_ a voice in her head whispered,_ to just ask for a divorce?_

_They would never let me,_ another voice replied. _That would be much too embarrassing for them._

Kara sighed. There really was nothing for her to do. She sat up as she heard the sound of another horse approaching.

"Kara!" Finn yelled. "Wanna go riding together?"

"Not right now," Kara said sweetly when he was in hearing range. "I'm riding Mist. I don't think he likes you." The horse's ears had gone back as soon as he had seen Finn. "See? I don't think it'd be a good idea."

Finn sighed, looking genuinely disappointed. "Very well," he said. "I'll head back, then." He turned his horse and trotted slowly back the way he'd come, looking back every once in a while, to see if Kara had changed her mind. She waved each time he looked back.

To waste time, Kara flipped through the history she'd stolen. Why not? Maybe she'd learn why Finn had turned out the way he had. At sunset, she rode away from the meadow, heading in the opposite direction from the castle. Mist walked like he knew where he was going, so she let him have his head.

A couple hours later, Kara looked up and saw a medium-sized house with a small stable next to it. It looked familiar. "Mist," Kara said, "is this the place where Blake lived?" Mist made a soft noise in his throat, as if he had understood her. "Good horse. Good baby," Kara told the horse, scratching his neck.

Kara stabled Night and Mist next to each other, made sure they were settled, and went into the house. It was dusty, which was to be expected. It was likely that no one had been in it for months. Kara smiled, got a bucket, and proceeded to scour the house. Quite a few hours later, Kara collapsed on the still-dusty sheets and went to sleep thinking that at least everything else was clean.

* * *

The next day, Kara finished cleaning the house. She found a small outlet from a river near the house, and used that to clean all the sheets and curtains in the house. By noon, all the fabrics she could get her hands on were clean and hanging on a clothesline outside. Smiling cheerfully, happy for the first time in a while, Kara went back into the house.

* * *

NightIntent: Hee. Bad ending. Feel free to yell at me for it. I have no idea whether I will write another sequel, or when I'll write it, if I do. But I likely will. Eventually. Even though this is a one-shot, please review anyway.


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